Dora Holzhandler
| Born
in Paris to Polish Jewish refugee parents, Holzhandler has lived mostly
in London since the age of six. In 1948 she enrolled at the Anglo-French
Art Centre, London, where she met her future husband, George Swinford.
They have three daughters. Family and ritual life, as embodied in
memory are central to her production. She does not draw or paint directly
from life or make preliminary studies, but rather finds her subjects
in her rich visual imagination. She describes the artistic process
as 'a divine world of play' through which a pristine, though familiar
world is created. Her subjects are lovers, children and families,
often based in childhood memory, but here always evoked as a kind
of timeless present. Characters realised in bold, simple forms occupy
jewel-like interiors, in which checkerboard patterns nestle against
stripes; the whole being a miraculous, instinctual orchestration of
spangled colour. There are also pulsating, animate landscapes, while
cities, in her hands, become benign, breathing organisms. Holzhandler
discovered Buddhism in the early 1950's, but is also student of the
Jewish Kabbalah. These twin mystical interests have served to confirm
her open and celebratory view of existence, even where events bring
tragedy and sadness. As Philip Vann has said, 'Dora recreates - or
remembers - the world in all its poetic immanence, its quintessence,
its unposed suchness. Dora
Holzhandler is represented in many museum collections including:
The Museum of Modern Art, Glasgow; Museum of Modern Art, Haifa;
The Jewish Museum, London. |
For further information and a list of works currently available |
